PCMA’s Convening Leaders, held Jan. 10-13, 2016, at British Columbia’s Vancouver Convention Center, was highlighted by the release of survey results from the association—in collaboration with Marriott International—that identified five key disruptive trends that could transform the meetings and conventions industry in the next three to five years.
The effort was undertaken under the auspices of Marriott’s Meetings Imagined initiative and featured input from a group of experts in fields such as data science, media and architecture, among other disciplines.
Noting that the meetings and convention industry is enjoying a successful period following recovery from the Great Recession, Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of PCMA, said this is the perfect time for the two organizations to embark on a forward-thinking study.
“[The meetings industry] is doing great,” Sexton said. “It’s the perfect time to perhaps reassess ... where the profession needs to go in the near future.”
The five key trends are as follows:
- Sensory Analytics: Capture an event’s pulse with the Internet of Things
- Tribalization: Cultivate kinships to elevate outcomes
- Content Safaris: Empower the non-linear journey
- Living 360°: Move beyond wellness to wholeness
- Immersive Telepresence: Captivate your virtual audience
According to PCMA and Marriott, fundamental changes to the industry will result in facilities needing to reevaluate their design to allow for meeting spaces that are conducive to creative engagement from smaller groups of shared-affinity groups to discuss issues that are more specific to their area of practice.
The study also suggested that attendees will self-organize and invest more time shaping the specific content that is most relevant to them, versus having it all mapped out beforehand.
A detailed explanation and video of the five trends, as shared by PCMA and Marriott, is available here: www.MeetingsToday.com/NextGenTrends.
In other PCMA Convening Leaders news, a press conference from the Meetings Mean Business Coalition revealed that the industry advocacy organization is rolling its North America Meetings Industry Day into a Global Meetings Industry Day, and that the self-funded coalition is ramping up to influence the 2016 election cycle with a marketing drive that will highlight the value of face-to-face meetings as evidenced by the proceedings at the Democratic and Republican national conventions, among other high-profile events.
“This is going to be the richest campaign ever run,” said Richard Harper, co-chair of the Meetings Mean Business Coalition and executive vice president of HelmsBriscoe, referring to the expected record amount of money that will be spent by various groups to influence 2016 political campaigns. “We’ve voted to spend funds to, guess what, [challenge] the individuals that challenged us.”
—Reporting by Tyler Davidson, from PCMA’s Convening Leaders
